When making steel cable reinforced conveyor belts, it is desirable to maintain the tensions on each cable at a predetermined level. This invention provides a method of making a steel cable reinforced conveyor belt while monitoring the tension of each of the cables going into the construction.
Methods and apparatuses for measuring the tension in wires and cables have been known for some time. Most are based on determining the natural frequency of vibration of a known length of cable between two fixed points and calculating the tension according to the following formula:
T=4L2F2M
where T is tension, L is the length between the two fixed points, F is the natural frequency of vibration and M is the mass per unit of length of the cable. See e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,871,217; 3,540,271; 3,394,587; 2,618,970 and 3,889,525.